2025-08-07 –, ELDORET (Clubhouse)
Language: English
Wikimania celebrates collaboration, but what if we made space for the bold, the unfiltered, the provocative—with WikiLove? This lightning talk session invites Wikimedians to share “unpopular takes” or “wild ideas” about improving the movement. Whether it's appointing admins by lottery, questioning sacred cows, or challenging beloved slogans, the goal is to stir the pot without spilling it.
LINK to sign up: https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/2025:Unpopular_Opinions:_Bold_Lightning_Talks_to_Shake_Up_Wikimedia
Each speaker gets 5 minutes to present. The only rule: be bold, be constructive, and don’t be mean. This session encourages respectful disruption, creative thinking, and a little bit of irreverence to spark deeper conversations. Come to laugh, cringe, cheer, or quietly nod in agreement. You might not agree with every idea, but you’ll leave thinking differently.
This could be done within the conference, or as a social activity in the evening, or some other slot.
This is your chance to hear (or share) ideas that don't usually make it past the Talk page. This tightly curated session invites Wikimedians to step outside their comfort zone and propose unconventional, provocative, or wildly idealistic changes to how our projects and communities work.
LINK to sign up: https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/2025:Unpopular_Opinions:_Bold_Lightning_Talks_to_Shake_Up_Wikimedia
Every speaker gets just 5 minutes. The format is fast, punchy, and thought-provoking.
Think: “what if we appointed admins by lottery to fix burnout and gatekeeping?” or “stop calling us ‘volunteers’—it’s inaccurate and exclusionary,” or “maybe every wiki should have an expiration date unless it justifies its existence.” No proposal is too strange, as long as it’s presented in good faith, with a dash of humor and a lot of heart.
We want to create a space for:
* Ideas that are too bold for an RfC
* Critiques that come with solutions
* Satire with a serious point
* Conversation starters, not flamewars
This isn’t a free-for-all rant session. Talks must be respectful, constructive, and rooted in a desire to improve Wikimedia—even if the idea sounds a little crazy. It’s okay to question assumptions, challenge sacred cows, or poke at deeply held norms, but we expect speakers to be thoughtful and kind, even when they’re bold.
Why this format? The Wikimedia movement thrives on consensus, but that can sometimes stifle out-of-the-box thinking. Many of us have had ideas we were too hesitant to share, fearing backlash or misunderstanding. This session permits people to speak up in a fun, safe, and intellectually playful format.
Who can participate? Anyone with an idea and a willingness to share it in a short talk. We’ll do a public call for submissions and select a diverse mix of speakers, from longtime contributors to fresh voices. Ideas don’t have to be perfectly fleshed out—just provocative enough to start a conversation.
Expect to be surprised. You may find yourself agreeing with something you never thought you would. Or you might hear a take that makes you furious, but also makes you think.
This is your invitation to the boldest, most thoughtful session at Wikimania. Sometimes, shaking things up is exactly what we need.
- What is the experience level needed for the audience for your session?
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Everyone can participate in this session
- How do you plan to deliver this session? You will be asked to confirm this closer to the date in case of changes to the format.
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Hybrid, with some speakers in Nairobi and others dialing in remotely
- Should your session be selected for the program, do you agree to release your session and supporting materials on-wiki and on the eventyay platform under CC BY-SA 4.0?
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I agree
- What other themes or topics does your session fit into? Please choose from the list of tags below.
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Capacity building, Conferences, Storytelling
- How does your session relate to the event theme: Wikimania@20: Inclusivity. Impact. Sustainability?
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This session embodies the Inclusivity theme by creating space for underheard, unconventional, or marginalized perspectives within the Wikimedia movement. Often, bold or unpopular ideas are filtered out of community discussions—not because they lack merit, but because they don’t fit the expected norms. By explicitly inviting these perspectives in a safe, respectful format, we open the floor to a wider range of contributors and make room for more diverse voices and experiences.
It aligns with Impact by fostering a culture of creative problem-solving. Sometimes, the ideas that sound the most radical at first are the ones that catalyze real change. By challenging assumptions and questioning the status quo, this session encourages forward-thinking solutions that could improve governance, participation, equity, and user experience across the movement.
Finally, it supports Sustainability by promoting honest reflection and innovation. If we want Wikimedia to thrive for the next 20 years, we must be willing to rethink—and occasionally reinvent—how we work. This session offers a lighthearted but meaningful space to do just that.
Andrew Lih has been a Wikipedia editor since 2003 and is an administrator on English Wikipedia and Wikidata. He is the author of the 2009 book The Wikipedia Revolution: How a bunch of nobodies created the world’s greatest encyclopedia. He is a passionate advocate of collaborative efforts between the cultural and heritage sector and the Wikimedia community. In the United States, he serves as Wikimedian at Large at the Smithsonian Institution, the world's largest museum, education, and research complex. In 2022, he was named one of the first Wikimedia Laureate for his lifetime of work with the Wikimedia movement.
Wikimaniac, Wikidata editor, co-organizer of the first Kiswahili Wikipedia Challenge.
Built the first multilingual offline Wikipedia snapshots, and custom Wikislices, for One Laptop per Child.
A founder of the Public AI Network.